Crime Report: ‘Cheeky’ porch pirate absconds with panties, push-up bras during homeowner’s hiatus
July 2
Burglary, residence: 300 block of St. Katherine Drive, La Cañada. A woman received a call at around 7:45 p.m. from a security company advising her an alarm had gone off at the home of her recently deceased mother, which had been unoccupied for the past four years. She later found a window had been broken and a curtain was hanging out, though nothing inside appeared to be out of place.
Burglary, vehicle: 5000 block of Hillard Avenue, La Cañada. A man said sometime between 9 p.m. the day before and 9 a.m. that day someone entered a locked 2019 Toyota Highlander and a 2018 GMC Denali while they were parked in his driveway, stealing a metro express lane device from his Denali. He told deputies he believed someone may have used a universal key to unlock the doors automatically, as there was no observable damage to either vehicle.
Burglary vehicle: 2400 block of Carol Park Place, Montrose. A woman told deputies sometime between June 30 at 9:30 p.m. and 7 a.m. the following day someone punched out the front driver’s side key port of her 2016 Honda Odyssey and stole her cellphone charger and some currency from the center console. Her friend’s hardshell backpack, which contained a gold necklace, was also missing from inside.
July 3
Burglary, residence: 3900 block of Alta Vista Drive, La Cañada. Deputies responded to a 1:06 p.m. burglar alarm call and saw the front door of the residence open. Inside, the glass door of a craft room leading out to a balcony had been shattered. Three bedrooms had been ransacked and a shattered nightstand drawer with an attached and still unopened pistol safe was left on the back patio floor. The victim, who had been out of town since June 26, said nothing appeared to have been taken.
July 4
Grand theft, unlocked vehicle: 400 block of Georgian Road, La Cañada. A man left his unlocked 2017 Honda CRV in his driveway at around 6 p.m. the day before. At around 6 a.m. that day, his father went outside and saw the front doors of that vehicle and the trunk and front passenger door of a vehicle belonging to the victim’s wife wide open. A brown Ted Baker bag containing an HP laptop was reported missing.
July 5
Grand theft: 300 block of Baptiste Way, La Cañada. A man said at around 2 p.m. he left his red Honda power sprayer in the driveway of his home to run errands. When he came home at 4 p.m., he saw the sprayer was missing and thought a repairman doing maintenance on the property may have accidentally taken it. But the worker said he had no knowledge of the item’s location.
Theft by access card: 1900 block of Waltonia Drive, Montrose. A woman told deputies she’d been about to leave a Pasadena parking lot in her vehicle at around 5:30 p.m. when she heard a thud. She checked to see if she had dropped something but saw nothing. About 30 minutes later, she got a text message from American Express asking if she’d recently purchased fuel at a gas station in Houston. She replied no, and the credit company froze her credit card. When she went to her car to check her wallet for her credit card, she realized the wallet was missing and that the thud she’d heard earlier might have been the sound of it hitting the ground. At around 8 p.m., she received a message from a store employee who’d found her wallet in the parking lot and wished to return it. When she retrieved it, she noticed none of her credit cards were missing but appeared to have been arranged differently in the wallet. Later, a bank statement confirmed another purchases had been made on her American Express card at a gas station.
Grand theft: 5000 block of La Cañada Boulevard, La Cañada. A man returned home from a mini-vacation on July 3 and learned from his daughter that while four packages had reportedly been left by the front door in his absence, nothing was there. Video surveillance showed a white 2000 Toyota Tundra with tinted windows and a utility camper attached approach the property at 7:17 a.m. that day. A Latino with a mustache and goatee who was dressed in a blue jumpsuit was seen removing a Honda gas-powered pressure washer from the side yard and placing it into the camper. The man later walked to the front porch and took the packages, placing them in the cab of the truck before driving away. The packages contained various items, including Crocs shoes, no-show “Cheeky” panties, push-up bras, a service desk bell and cellphone accessories.
July 6
Grand theft: 3000 block of Hopeton Road, La Crescenta. A man told deputies he was walking through his kitchen on July 4 when he noticed inside a kitchen cabinet that a lid to a container where he’d hidden some gold bars had been slightly moved. Fearing the bars’ discovery, the man went to fill the container with coffee beans and noticed the bars were gone. He ran to the garage, where he kept a silver coin collection and found it was also missing. He said few people knew of his hiding places.
Compiled from reports on file at the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station.
